Alice B. Grist

That band around your middle and the thunder in your thighs is keeping you small right?

And of course, you will be happier when you are so many ounces, such a dress size, ever so slinky and small...

How about this instead? Maybe the desire to be 'less' is a state of delirium imposed on you by a society that wishes to sell you anxiety. When you buy into that anxiety you become a pawn. One who lives out his or her life beholden to your own bodily parts. So you don't move forward, you may not find true love, you never quite commit to that career move, you choose badly based around self perception, you say no more than yes, you lose perspective to the feelings of self loathing.

Yes, the desire to lose weight, to be less, is precisely that. A recipe for a life of less. And I speak from experience. I remember when my days were practiced around the possibility of attending the gym and the requirement to eat appropriately. It was an obsession. It defined me. I didn't get much done in those days... My mind and heart danced around my perimeters, but no further. Then I opened to another aspect of myself. A part that transcends bones, skin and fat. My spirit. It weighs nothing, and it changes everything.

Here is a four step spiritual 'cleanse' that may just change your everything, and help you to lose the turbulent gravity of weight, that sits heavy in your heart...

1) Open to the idea that you an an everlasting spiritual spark of amazing. You read this far and therefore, you are open to there being, 'something more'. Now what if that something more, is you? What if you go on beyond this life. What if you incarnated here with a purpose, one that is so much more than checking in on the bathroom scales. Consider that you are infinite and that the source of all love and power resides right inside of you. Yeah it's big. And yeah you are, in spirit and soulful stature. And that is where big counts.

2) You can't reach your big, fat, bountiful spirit if you are consumed by and consuming an appetite for less, for being less, for becoming less, for losing weight, and in that same breath losing sanity, losing soul and losing self. There is so much literal junk standing between you, and the idea of your forever self. Here are a few examples of decluttering and allowing your spirited self to step forward. Stop buying magazines that inflict heartache on you due to the unrealisitic images. Stop perusing facebook in a comparative exercise, counting flaws and comparing waists. Don't buy things you don't need to adorn yourself. Just be for a little while. Free from images and comparison.

3) Feed your soul instead. Look to what makes you happy on a truly base level. What did you love as a child? Revisit it. Do what you used to do, and do it lots. Think hard on what you love. Find expression for any self loathing you have and transmute it into your creations and your art, your work and your journal. Let it bleed from you until you are left with something that feels a little more like self love.

4) Meditate, masturbate, read, pray, take long baths, be in nature, put your phone down and find some silence (frequently), be only with inspirational people and talk only about wonderful things, write down your night dreams and decipher their code, write down your day dreams and step towards them, refuse your minds need to return you to fear; dance, sing, draw, colour, garden, cook, eat, learn. Forgive yourself for something. forgive someone else. Move on. Expand in a hundred ways. Get bigger. Take up more space in the world.

Squirrels in the garden. Squirrels on cards that fall out of drawers. The baby squirrel tail the cat brought in 😩.

This particular energy brings messages of having more fun, and working hard to get prepared. Plus a message that we never quite know how our planted seeds will feed us. Will they bear fruit, fill our bellies or transform into mighty trees? The mystery of which squirrel deals with, with so much jolly, bouncy fun!

Gaze gently at the images taken from my personally designed oracle cards (yet to be completed). Then, pick a card, any card. The meanings (left to right) are posted below. This is your guidance for this week, with a little side info on how the card was born. Let me know how it connects to you in the comments below.​First card: Birth. I designed this card the week I gave birth to Clover. Prior to the actual event. I was desperate to allow baby to come on her own into this world (and without induction). She made it, at the last minute. I was in hospital awaiting induction, but they couldn't fit me in. They took me into the ward for an overnight stay and what had been regular tightening became full on surges. She came on her own and I warrior woman birthed her without pain relief. If you have seen the show my first birth starred in, She's Having A Baby' Sky Living, you will know how badly I wanted that natural birth. What do you want to birth now? Just because you want it, and it feels like the best, easiest thing in the world, does not mean it's going to be simple or pain free. Be patient and push gently. Above all invoke it into being, and have total faith that it can be done, no matter what the prevailing circumstances. Wait, pray, paint, push and dream it to life. Deal with whatever way your project / situation wants to come through you into the world, let it be part of the magic. If if doesn't come easy, then embrace the adventure.

Second Card: Inner Child. My daughter Ivy designed this card. Design is the wrong word. She haphazardly flung paint on the paper and used her little paws for great effect. She allowed it to be what it is, without fear or favour. Your inner child wants you to just chill out. Life may not be perfect, but it can still be fun right? Engage the current moment. Make the most of what you have and find intriguing ways to make life colourful, exciting, wild and yes, above all, fun. Whatever aspects of your self you buried as you moved into adulthood are calling to you right now. They want to come out and play. They never left really. They are waiting at your door, ringing the bell to be let in. So open it. Encourage them to inspire you by cooking your fave childhood meal, or undertaking something you loved as a kid, go roller skating, watch some Disney, revisit your best Enid Blyton book, climbed a tree. Go back to your basics and remind your truest self that you still have room for her!

Third Card: I designed this, somewhat inspired by the menstrual Maven Mrs Lisa Lister, if you don't know her work, check it out here...You are a goddess. In all your bloody, bleeding, round bellied loveliness, you are a goddess. Release whatever you are hanging onto that is obstructing your way forward. Do you need to forgive someone or something? Do you have hopes and ambitions that are actually blurring your true path? Are you hanging onto fear and worry like a comfort blanket? All of these things can stop us from moving forward powerfully. Be mindful, just for today, fire out where your brain is going, then purposefully rewire it. Write a letter to the universe and burn it. Let go of anything that is dogging you and make space within for something new, something better! ​For more guidance check out all of Alice's blogs...To book your own personal reading starting at just £10, go here...Alice's books for soulful exploration.

If you don't know what to do in life. Just do something. Did you know I was once in a 'sex farce'. It was actually a rather mild mannered but hilarious local amateur dramatic production. I was in a place where I wanted to achieve something. But I didn't know what. As a kid I'd longed to be an actress and loved drama. So I did this.

I had a small part as a flirty blonde au pair - totally type cast. But I loved it and hated it in equal measure. It taught me some things about me. Not long after this I started to write. I wrote first for music magazines. Till I realised I should write about what really interests me (not what my husband does). So I stayed to write (and live and explore) about spirituality. Have never looked back. So if you are stuck what to do. Just do something. Be like me. Be in a sex farce or any other farce that suits and find yourself! #amateurdramatic #findyourself #drama #actress #dosomethinf #spiritulity #spiritjunkie #spiritualliving #tarot

Ok I'm not going to bullshit you here. Sometimes the death card actually means death. In all my 20 something years of reading cards I've never had this crop up at the time of an actual death either. But today is different...

Yesterday my husband lost somebody and then up pops this card. Not so much an omen, but a startling reflection. The thing with the 'death' card is that it heralds so much hope. Because whilst it can reflect the loss of so much, it also points us to the fact that from loss new beginnings can spring.

With each person that we lose, we are gifted the chance to consider what that person meant to us. To love them for all their good, and to take lessons from their life, apply it to our lives and continue their legacy. And if you are spiritual then death also represents a return home, to the true home, to a place where the aches and pains of body and mind are no longer felt. A place where the larks and jests of earth are relieved. A compassionate, loving place where we feel the light of source pumping through our metaphorical veins.

So yes, sometimes the death card means actual death. But there is no bleakness in that. Only hope and if you want to look for it, inspiration, love, inevitability and release. If you are grieving a death I hope this helps you. With love, Alice